NEW DELHI: India has submitted a proposal at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to start discussions on trade facilitation agreement in services.

The proposal aims at liberalising rules for movement of professionals and other steps to reduce transaction costs to boost growth of the services sector.”Today we have submitted the legally vetted paper in Geneva,” Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters here.

She said that the special committee of the global trade body WTO will discuss the proposal in March.India is pitching for this trade facilitation agreement in services as the sector contributes over 60 per cent to the GDP and 28 per cent to total employment.

New Delhi: The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today launched the Make in India initiative with an aim to give the Indian economy global recognition.

Make In India

Addressing a gathering consisting of top global CEOs at the event in Vigyan Bhawan in the capital, the Prime Minister said “FDI” should be understood as “First Develop India” along with “Foreign Direct Investment.” He urged investors not to look at India merely as a market, but instead see it as an opportunity.

The Prime Minister said it is important for the purchasing power of the common man to increase, as this would further boost demand, and hence spur development, in addition to benefiting investors. The faster people are pulled out of poverty and brought into the middle class, the more opportunity will there be for global business, the Prime Minister said. Therefore, he said, investors from abroad need to create jobs. Cost effective manufacturing and a handsome buyer – one who has purchasing power – are both required, the Prime Minister said. More employment means more purchasing power, he added.

The Prime Minister said that India is the only country in the world which offers the unique combination of democracy, demography, and demand. He said the new Government was taking initiatives for skill development to ensure that skilled manpower was available for manufacturing. He also referred to the Digital India mission, saying this would ensure that Government processes remained in tune with corporate processes. Read the rest of this entry »

This was disclosed by Mr Markus Haas, Deputy Austrian Trade Commissioner in India, during his interaction with the members of the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Fapcci) here on Monday.

The objective was to further enhance trade between Austria and Andhra Pradesh, he said.

NEW DELHI: With the aim to offer firms an opportunity to explore business openings in UAE, the confederation of Indian industry (CII) in association with Hamriyah Free Zone Authority, UAE, will organise a business seminar titled “Hamriyah Free Zone- Your Venture to Success” on July 16 in Puducherry.

New Delhi: The services sector in India grew at its fastest in two years in June 2010 led by an increase in business expectations and new orders.

According to the HSBC Markit Business Activity Index, based on a survey of 400 firms, the service sector rose to 64.0 in June 2010 from 58.2 in May 2010, pointing to a substantial rate of growth as a figure above 50 indicates expansion.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) plans to restructure its joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, as it prepares to re-bid for the NTPC contract for bulk supply of supercritical boilers worth about Rs 9,000-11,000 crore, in which they were earlier disqualified on technical grounds. NTPC re-tendered the contract today.

L&T plans to transfer the equity of L&T in their joint ventures (JVs) with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) into L&T Power through a book transfer, if clauses for the re-tender remain the same, company executives told Business Standard.

Bids from L&T Power, a 100 percent subsidiary of L&T, were disqualified this week on technical grounds that the firm lacked experience and expertise to supply supercritical boilers and lacked equity partnerships in manufacturing theses. L&T’s pair of three-year old JVs with the Japanese company — L&T MHI Boilers Pvt Ltd and L&T-MHI Turbine Generators Pvt Ltd — are between L&T and MHI, and not between L&T Power and MHI. “If L&T had bid instead of L&T Power, they may not have raised this issue,” said an L&T executive, who wished not to be quoted.

NTPC re-tendered since after L&T Power’s disqualification, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd was the only one in the fray. Though the retendering would delay the projects by at least three months, it is expected that BGR-Hitachi and Ansaldo Caldaie Boilers might also take part. The two consortia were unable to meet the qualification criteria to bid for the tender earlier, said an executive privy to the process. Besides formalising partnerships, the tender conditions also required the bidders to have already acquired around 70 per cent of the land for a manufacturing facility.

Ansaldo Caldaie Boilers, a JV between Italian company Ansaldo—which is 50 per cent owned by Gammon India—and GB Engineering at Trichy, is in the initial stages of setting up the plant.

Another JV likely to bid is between Pune-based Thermax and Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation of the US. This JV deal was signed only in March. “We will bid, depending on the new clauses that NTPC will publish in the new tendering norms. As of now, we have identified land and can acquire it even before October, if required,” said M S Unnikrishnan, managing director of Thermax.

NTPC initially floated the tender in last October. The last date for bids was January 28. Only BHEL and L&T bid for boilers, as other companies planning to set up Jvs were either in the process of setting up the units or in the construction stage. NTPC’s orders are for 11 boilers, nine for its own projects and two for Damodar Valley Corporation.

Bharat Forge, which is setting up a JV with Alstom of France at Mundra in Gujarat, had started construction only in December last year. Toshiba JSW Turbine and Generator Pvt Ltd, a JV between Toshiba Corporation and Sajjan Jindal’s JSW Group, is planning to commission its facilities near Chennai by January 2011.

L&T Power is investing close to Rs 3,600 crore in power generation and related sectors at Hazira in Gujarat. It has planned to augment its existing manufacturing capacity of steam turbine generators and boiler-turbines-generators (BTG) to 6,000 Mw from the current 4,000 Mw in two years. Investments include Rs 750 crore in boilers, Rs 1,400 crore in forgings, Rs 1,050 crore in turbines and Rs 120 crore each in foundry and piping facilities.

Hyderabad: Infotech Enterprises Ltd, an engineering services and technology solutions provider, has signed a long-term agreement with Seawell AS of Norway to provide engineering support services.

Under the agreement, Seawell, a drilling and well services company, has set up a dedicated Engineering Centre at Infotech’s Manikonda facility here.

“This agreement would offer Seawell’s Drilling Facility Engineering (DFE) increased flexibility and ability to handle more projects. It would now have a dedicated group of engineers based in India,” Mr Krishna Bodanapu, President (Engineering) of Infotech, said here in a press release.

“The agreement marks our foray into drilling equipment and facilities in the oil and gas industry. As the demand for drilling and well services increases globally, we hope that this would help us explore this segment,” he said.